8.5.07

HIGGINS PREVAILS IN LATE, LATE SHOW

John Higgins, on top form, is as good as anyone who has ever played professional snooker at the highest level and so the only surprise about the capture of his second world title was that it came nine years after he won his first.

I salute his performance. He's always conducted himself with class and good humour and will be a good world champion for the sport in the next 12 months.

However, his 18-13 victory over Mark Selby won't have been seen by many youngsters wishing to follow in his footsteps in future years.

The BBC2 peak viewing audience of 5.2m came at 11.15pm - an hour and a half before the final ended. People were tired, needed to sleep for work and simply couldn't stay with it to the end.

The main problem is not so much the 8pm start as the 3pm afternoon start. A couple of long frames and all of a sudden they were only playing six, with a possible 13 to play at night.

Had the final gone the distance it may have threatened the latest ever Crucible finish of 3.51am set by those arch grinders Cliff Thorburn and Terry Griffiths in 1983.

It's asking a lot for the public to stay with any match, even the world final, until such a late hour.

5 comments:

Snooker lovers generally want the game to succeed as an organisation and professional sport. The army of loyal snooker fans that we already have have, have no problems watching snooker into the early hours of the morning.

But we're not going to win over new fans easily by showing the climax of world ranking event finals in the early hours of the morning. I guess there's more to it than just when sessions start, like TV scheduling etc.

Great final though, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hope Clive Everton's operation went well and hope to see him back on the BBC soon!

Another thing to consider,is the people watching in the rest of the World.If snooker is to become a more global sport,then it needs to gain new fans outside the UK and Ireland.In most parts of Europe the final ended around 2 or 3 in the morning!Keep in mind that while the WC final might be played during Bank Holiday in Britain,in the rest of the World it's just a normal working day. People can't be expected to follow any snooker match untill the early hours of the morning.